Since
this is billed, nominally, as a follow-up to my rant on negative reviews
...I probably should actually do the follow-up first.

So here we go ...there is no such thing as an objective audio review. Even
with great care to standardize the process, one cannot separate the
observer from the observed.

Even
Julian said when he liked and did not like stuff he was reviewing; that
being said, there is also no such thing as an objective audio system. An
audio system is a complex ecology, with diverse and often unpredictable
interactions amongst its various pieces and parts. Stuff sounds
differently in different combinations and in different contexts.
Viva la difference! This is what makes this hobby so much fun.
Putting together a satisfying system is a highly variable and
idiosyncratic process.

Failing
to acknowledge this produces crazy thinking. For example, it is absurd
for a reviewer to declare what is fit and not fit, based on their
slavish adherence to a referred source, or amplification ...or speaker of
choice. The whole idea of a useful audio review is to give people a
sense of the equipment under review, not so much from a static
standpoint, but within a reasonable context(s). This means that
reviewers have to adjust their system to whatever is under review.

A
distributor recently vented his frustration to me about a reviewer who
ONLY uses a SE tube amplifier in his reviews, regardless of its
appropriateness. Whatever your personal feelings about SE amplifier
topology, it is simply absurd to mate a barely-into-double-digit Watt
output, impedance-dependent, powered tone control, to a sub-ninety dB
efficient, 4 ohm, current-hungry speaker. A microcephalic can intuit the
outcome of that pairing!

As a
reviewer, I can either remain obdurate in my personal preferences, or I
can try to provide the speakers I am reviewing with the amplification
they were apparently intended to use, so I can actually hear what they
are supposed to sound like.

This
creates a bit of a paradox for the reviewer. They mostly don't have the
luxury of changing only one variable (the piece under consideration).
The scientific method would say if you change more than one variable,
then you lose the ability to objectively (quote, unquote) assess the
impact of the change.

When
this happens you then have the choice of trying to maintain some sort of
illusion of objectivity, or one simply embraces the madness and
recognizes:

Some phono cartridges are going to sound crappy in some arms, and
wonderful in others.

Wire often works as a mysterious tone control.

The
kind of music you use to review with has as much impact on the
review as the equipment under consideration.

There are an infinite—or at least a REALLY LARGE—number of
combinations in phono and line preamplifiers and their interactions
with power amplifiers, and some of them are great, and others are
ghastly. It is very easy to put superb components together ...that
hate each other.

Some speakers are going to sound crappy in some rooms, and wonderful
in others.

Speakers interact with EVERYTHING in an unpredictable manner.

If
you still think that you can maintain the illusion of objectivity,
please, I have a piece of the true cross I would like to sell you.

Perhaps
ninety percent of audio journalism is info-tainment. You read what one
person, in a single context, thinks of things. And this can be both very
useful and very entertaining ...but always remember, no matter what they
tell you, you are reading about an essentially subjective process, just
as you do when you read music, art, and movie reviews.

When I
was young, I used to find Steve Simmel's music reviews absolutely
reliable. Our tastes coincided. If he liked something, I knew I would
too. There is a local restaurant reviewer that serves exactly the
opposite function; if she likes something; I know I will hate it, so her
negative reviews always create interest for me.

But in
either case, while your interest may be aroused by a review, before you
spend your hard earned money, read other opinions and go hear it
yourself. And always remember, you are listening to someone describe an
entire context of variables; be aware your mileage may vary.

And now you get two rants for the price of one!

Speaker manufacturers, listen up! The Doctor goes on a rant.

Speakers are the black art of audio, and more idiosyncratic than any
other part of the audio chain. The sheer variation is bewildering. I
wonder if there is any aspect of audiophila more angst-producing.

There
is a gentleman's rule of audiophiles; one does not criticize another's
choice of speakers any more than one does their choice in romantic
partners. You can bag on their sources, even disparage their
amplification, but speakers are off limits to civilized audiophiles.
It's just too sensitive.

It is
perfectly OK to roll our eyes when the subject is out of the room, and
then discuss their speaker's obvious shortcomings in great detail with
others, but not in front of the owner; it's just not done in polite
society.

But I
am an audio reviewer, and thus immune to social conventions of most
sorts (including, apparently, manners). So I am going to list some of my
most enduring complaints. Be assured, most of these complaints are not
unique to any specific speaker.

I have
had enough so I am going to rant a bit.

Terminals - The ties that bind

Audiophiles need to arise and demand the ability to bi-wire/bi-amp any
speaker that has even the slightest pretense of being intended for
serious audiophile consideration. No patronizing excuses, no
rationalizations ...just be quiet, split your crossovers and give us two
sets of widely spaced, heavy five-way binding terminals, located far
enough up off the floor so we don't have to tip the speaker to get heavy
runs of cable hooked up.

I don't
want to hear condescending language about how bi-wiring and bi-amping is
not necessary and may even be harmful. It's not your call. You can
always provide jumpers and place grave admonitions in your owner's
manual.

I also
don't care what you think of my choices in wire; it's none of your
business what wire I pick and how much of it I use. If I want to use
enough wire to suspend the Holland Tunnel Bridge, so be it.

Frankly, if the world obeyed my desires, we would long ago have
transitioned to pro-sound XLR type plugs (that LOCK) for connecting
everything, but alas, I am a voice crying in the wilderness. No
terminals; just plug and play. Oh, the humanity!

Second,
USE NORMAL SIZE TERMINALS!

At the
next World Wide Audio Convention (WWAC) (tentatively scheduled for late
2007 in Fabio's listening room) let's all decide on what size spades we
are going to use on speaker cables, standardize it, and then stick with
it!

Sheesh!

I am
sure some designer at some boutique speaker manufacturer found those
fancy terminals from Botswana to be very pretty but if they will not
accommodate standard spades, back they should go!

You may
want us to hook the speakers up using a specific connector type,
but again, this is not your choice. I sure as hell am not going
to re-terminate my gerzillion dollar speaker cables to accommodate
your preferences and the next time I have to cable a five-figure
speaker by sticking one end of the spade into a hole, or use a banana
plug adaptor, I am going to throw a shoe!

Tilting and Tipping

There
are high-end speakers that have to be tipped to achieve some semblance
of time-alignment. Seriously; you have to tip them.

It's a
trick that I have used with cheap speakers in the past. I suspect many
of you probably have, as well.

I have
two issues with this. The first is philosophical. Deal with time
alignment and dispersion in the cabinet design, not with after-the-fact
external mechanic solutions. It's annoying, especially on expensive
speakers. If you are going charge astronomical prices, earn your keep
through excellence in design and manufacturing, if not through weight.

A
word about bass

It is
becoming increasingly common for speaker manufacturers to use relatively
small diameter bass drivers, but to use multiples and to employ "tricks"
to get LF extension. However, these tricks pretty much give out around
the mid-thirties. Most such speakers die quickly below that level. The
specs may say they have output into the twenties, but in reality, you
aren't going to get it. And if you have ever experienced a speaker that
will authentically give you strong 20Hz, you won't get fooled again.

Thock, Thock, Boom, Boom

Of
course there are advantages to smaller drivers. One of them may be to
support this curious, almost inexplicable "audiophile" thing about
over-damped, dry bass. You have to spend some time around real musical
instruments to understand that amplified bass is NOT dry and damped. It
is most often redolent and even boomy.

I stood
next to a Fender Jazz bass for years, with a variety of amplification
from an old tubed Fender Bassman (that actually caught on fire one
night, and still survived) to SVT and Ampeg. It was NEVER dry or damped.
We used to threaten to kill the bass player for routinely overloading
the rooms where we performed. His defense was eloquent, "That's what
it's supposed to sound like."

I
personally heard incomparable drummer for the Count Basie Band, Butch
Miles say the same thing when a band mate said a recording made his
drums sound "boomy."

"That's
how I sound," He said with a grin and a shrug.

Ah, you
say, but that does not apply to acoustic bass. And where,
pray tell, do you hear acoustic bass, other than in close proximity to a
chamber group? At the philharmonic? Bzzzzzzzzzz, wrong, they mic and
amplify through the overhead. At your local jazz club? Bzzzzzzzzz; show
me a current jazz acoustic bassist who is not using some form of
amplification.

Once
upon a time I went to a George Winston concert in a very good
auditorium. He had apparently insisted they turn the PA off. Everyone
went to sleep because at best, the piano was a distant tinkle.

This
dry, over-damped bass, with little or no energy below 30Hz does not
reflect reality. It is NOT high fidelity!

We need
real bass, and we need it down to 20Hz +/- 3 dB. And we need
speakers that will reproduce bass at those frequencies at convincingSPL's.

This
annoys me so much.

I KNOW
the synthesizer on Chic Corea's, Romantic Warrior (first
cut, whatever the hell the name is) descends smoothly down to the mid
twenties, and I am sick of literally hearing it go away with most
speakers. Same for Heart's, "Magic Man," as well as pretty much
every Emerson, Lake and Palmer song ever recorded.

Sherman, set the way-back machine!

Quick
nostalgia trip.

1970s,
Infinity Quantum Line Source, bi-amped with two Ampzillas (that speaker
had an efficiency of "4" and dropped to fractions of an Ohm in the low
frequencies ...it really needed a nuclear reactor to power it; even two Ampzillas routinely clipped). Down 3 dB at 18Hz. That same Romantic
Warrior cut on the QLS's would shake the house and massage my buttocks,
oh and light the clipping lights on both Ampzillas in the process.

My
point is a simple one. The information is there on the recording, and we
aren't getting it, because someone thinks it's more important to go to
50kHz, than to 20Hz. Screw diamond tweeters until you can do 20-20! (I
am thinking about a bumper sticker ...FREE THE LAST 10Hz!)

Ok,
back to the present time, rant ended.

I think
part of the problem with speakers is that anyone with a wood shop can
make them, regardless of what they know. This is not true for
electronics; some knowledge and skill is actually required just to keep
stuff from catching on fire. But making cables and speakers ...well,
almost anything can and does go.

This is
not to say there is not art and science in speaker manufacturing, just
to say it is not required to get into the business.

This
puts you the consumer at great risk. And, at the same time, this is
where your audio journey finds its greatest satisfaction.

The
Doctor's Dating Guidelines

Think
of finding your ideal speaker the same way you you would if you were looking for a mate.

Many (most) (Ok, ALL) of the prospective candidates are not telling
the truth.

Even worthy candidates lie sometimes.

Your friends don't know any more than you do.

The
strength of a stated opinion and its validity are often inversely
proportional.

Like it or not, your room is the primary determining factor in which
speakers you can, or cannot use effectively. Most audiophiles buy
too large speakers for too small rooms.

Exteriors matter no matter how we wish they didn't.

You
will make mistakes and you will feel foolish about them.

That which impresses the most on initial contact may turn out to be
the bane of your existence over time.

Take your time. Decide in haste and repent at leisure.

Look around.

Size matters.

Weirdness is no assurance of anything but weirdness.

Complexity and esoteric materials guarantee nothing.

Price guarantees nothing.

Who gives a crap about what others think; you are the one who has
to live with it.

Tastes and sensibilities change with time
...sometimes you just have
to know when to move on.